


triangles are my favorite shape

by apollonian



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 04:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4291314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollonian/pseuds/apollonian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott has a crush on Derek, and he has a crush on Stiles, and then he has a crush on Derek <i>and</i> Stiles and nothing's turning out the way he expected (spoiler: it's way better).</p>
            </blockquote>





	triangles are my favorite shape

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically 4000 words of nonsense I spewed out over the course of three days. The title is from Alt-J's song Tessellate, which was what I was listening to when the idea for this came to me and it made me laugh.
> 
> I'm posting this very late and I've checked over it for any errors, but if you spot anything I've missed please let me know.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! :D
> 
> ETA: realized I posted this without a summary, oh my god, I really need to go to sleep now.

Scott first meets Derek when they're assigned as lab partners for their Intro to Biology course.

Or, well. He first meets Derek when he accidentally gives him a bloody nose in Biology lab. Completely accidentally, really - he was running late to the lab, having gotten lost in the maze of identical white hallways that made up the Biology department, which were depressingly empty of anyone he could have possibly asked for directions. As he'd finally raced into the right room under the disapproving eye of the professor, he had crashed straight into Derek, who'd gotten up to throw something in the trashcan.

They'd both reeled back, groaning, and, in Derek's case, bleeding from the nose. Scott had freaked out when he'd seen the blood all over Derek's mouth and hand and  _shit_ , splattered all over his shirt, and as he ran about trying to find tissues and in general causing a ruckus, the TA, Braeden, had intervened and calmly told them both to sit down and shut up and let her handle it.

After Derek's nose had stopped bleeding and Scott had stopped working himself into an asthma attack and all the blood had been cleaned up (mostly), they'd finally introduced themselves properly and Scott had been charmed from that moment on.

Derek had big green-blue-brown eyes and a surgically precise hand with his scalpel and a love of bad puns and a face that scrunched up when he laughed. Scott tried to make that happen as often as he could, pulling out his worst, most awful jokes and watching Derek shake with suppressed laughter, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he dissected something or the other. Scott wasn't close to a lot of people at the university yet, having transferred in after a crappy freshman year at the college he had thought was the best fit for him, but Derek made his heart swell like something out of a romantic comedy every time they both geeked out over deep sea animals and weird plants, and really made Scott wish that he had the balls to just ask out Derek on a date.

Aside from Derek, though, he had made a couple of other friends, people from his dorm and from his classes. His second favorite friend was probably Stiles from his writing seminar, who rivaled both Scott and Derek in his nerdery and always, always had a witty remark ready.

Scott had been harboring a crush on him, too, and if Stiles hadn't mentioned his boyfriend a week into their friendship, that crush would have grown into a full-blown, heart-eyes one. As it was, Scott put Stiles in the off-limits box in his head and listened to him gush about The Boyfriend (yes, capitalized, as that was how Stiles referred to him all the time and then cackled about it), and tried to ignore the way Stiles casually touched him – a hand on his shoulder, a gentle kick to his ankle – as he flailed about The Boyfriend and his latest hijinks. It wasn't as if it was a hardship – Stiles was a gifted storyteller, and the goofy smile that occasionally overtook his face made Scott certain that The Boyfriend was perfect for him.

So that was how the majority of the first two months of Scott’s fall semester passed – crushing harder on Derek with each lab class and trying to stop himself from crushing harder on Stiles and his stupidly adorable upturned nose, and of course, Skyping with Lydia, his best friend from back home.

Lydia was kicking ass and taking names at her college, but she always made time to listen to (and laugh at) Scott grump about the unfairly gorgeous people at his college and the workload that came with being a pre-med student. In return, he listened to her crib about how the math TAs were utterly incompetent at their jobs and the general requirements she still had to work her way through.

The Skype chats helped Scott miss her a little bit less, but he still wished she were here with him. She would definitely drag him out to a party, and terrify and motivate him enough that he would finally man up and ask Derek on a date. To be fair, she did try to do that, but the effect wasn't nearly as potent as it would be in person, and Scott was in no way ready to go out to a college party without a friend to give him moral support.

Of course, things couldn't proceed that way forever, as much as Scott wished they would, and the turning point comes one fine day in October.

Scott wakes up, realizes it's the day he’s promised Lydia he'll ask Derek out on, and groans into his pillow. He was an idiot and signed up for the 9 am lab, so he pushes his nervousness out of his mind for now and falls into the easy routine of getting ready. He'd lucked out and gotten a single with a private bath, so he doesn't have to move very far to get his stuff together, and soon he's on his way to lab, a tight ball of nerves in the bottom of his stomach.

As soon as he steps into the lab and sees Derek there, though, in that lovely soft green sweater that makes his eyes a lethal weapon of attractiveness, he chickens out. He admits it. His resolve just withers away and dies, and he swallows and considers that Derek's continuing friendship is important to him and he might screw it all up if he says the D-word. He musters up a smile for Derek, who's looking a bit concerned, and distracts him with a stupid joke about manatees.

The lab today is simple, just some messing around with bacteria cultures and then busy work on the computers, so it's enough to keep Scott's mind occupied and away from imagining what, exactly, Lydia will yell at him when (not if) she finds out.

Near the end of the lab period, though, the professor announces that their big partnered project is due in three weeks, and if they haven't started working on it yet they'd better start soon or else. Scott groans and smacks his forehead because the project is at the bottom of his to-do list and he keeps on forgetting to do his part of the research. Derek looks at him and grins like he knows what Scott's thinking, which he probably does. Scott's sent him enough whiney texts on the nights before lab about the weekly problem sets that he's intimately familiar with Scott's tendency to put lab work on the back burner till the last minute.

Scott lets his forehead drop to the suspiciously sticky table and closes his eyes, only to jump and open them again when a warm hand lands on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's alright," Derek's amused voice says. "We can meet up at the library later and get some serious work done, I promise I'll keep you from being distracted."

Scott barely holds himself back from saying  _You're a distraction_ , and instead says, "It's a date."

Derek beams back at him, and Scott can't even beat himself up for using the D-word, Derek's sunshine-y face is that effective.

Scott is so screwed.

He barely makes it through the rest of his classes, hanging on to his concentration by a thin thread. He doodles all over his organic chemistry notes, mostly giant bubbly question marks, and hardly contributes to the discussion in his Spanish class. Señorita Velazquez pulls him aside after class to ask if he's okay, and he makes up some excuse about not getting enough sleep. She only hums in response but lets him go, and he escapes to the cafeteria.

After a quick lunch, he texts Derek to ask if he's done with classes. Derek replies back  _yeah I'm done, want to meet up at the engineering library?_

Scott says yes, and shoves his phone into his backpack so that he doesn't fiddle with it and drop it into a gutter (again). He starts walking to the library, feeling a little like he might puke, but once he's inside and spots Derek's green sweater, he takes a deep breath, waves at Derek, and relaxes at his wide smile.

Well, he relaxes until he sees the familiar head of messy brown hair sitting across from Derek, and then he walks over to the table in kind of a weird zombie haze. He rarely sees either Stiles or Derek outside of class, and seeing both of his crushes together, in such close proximity – that's like asking for a heart attack.

 _It's going to be alright_ , he tells himself,  _just act casual_. He even believes it, until he reaches the table and Derek grins at him and says, "Hey, Scott! This is my boyfriend, Stiles," and Stiles looks up at him, ever-present mischievous glint in his eye, and says, "Oh, we've met."

Scott stammers out a hello and it hits him all in a rush - Derek is The Boyfriend. Derek is the guy who's perfect for Stiles. Derek and Stiles are  _boyfriends._  They're holding hands, Scott notices with a kind of detached panic, because they're boyfriends, and oh god, Scott's been trying to flirt with Derek and all this time he was in a committed relationship.

He is _seriously_ so screwed.

He makes it through the – he doesn't even know what to call it, the study date? The awkward interaction with the two guys he has crushes on who're dating each other?

Anyway, whatever it is, he makes it through it by focusing mostly on his research and not engaging in his usual banter with either of them. Stiles tries to nudge him once, too, just one of his regular casual touches, but Scott involuntarily flinches away and Stiles frowns, doesn't try to touch him again.

By the time he makes up an excuse about needing to call his mom, Stiles has lost the brightness in his eyes from earlier and Derek just looks concerned, as if he's going to make Scott sit down and explain, thoroughly, what's wrong. Scott just gives them both a tight smile and rushes out of there.

When he reaches his dorm room, he throws his backpack on the bed, for once uncaring about the dirty bottom of his bag messing up his nice clean sheets, and waits for Skype to open so that he can talk to Lydia. He'd texted her on the way to check whether she was online, but he didn't want to send her the whole sordid story via text, so Skype it was. Seeing her face-to-face would make him feel marginally better, anyway.

Skype, being the ornery app it is, crashes five times before he can get it to work properly. He's barely holding himself back from thumping his head against his desk when Lydia answers his call, and he heaves a sigh of relief when she greets him with a sharp "What did Derek do?"

"Derek didn't do anything," Scott says, hiding his face in his hands. "I didn't even ask him out."

"Well, why not?" Lydia asks, expression as concerned as she lets it get. "I thought he was your weird-nature-loving soulmate."

"He's  _not_  – ugh, no," Scott says. "Alright, look, I told you about Stiles and The Boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah," she replies, flippantly. "Why, did Derek turn out to be The Boyfriend?"

Something in Scott's expression must give him away because Lydia's eyes widen and she looks genuinely shocked.

"Oh my God, he  _is_?" she says, and Scott just groans in response. There's a pause and then Lydia snorts and says, "I guess that explains why your text said 'fml fml fml need to talk to you rn!!!'"

"It's not funny," Scott whines. "My life is ruined! I can't face either of them again."

"Come on, you have to admit that it is kind of funny," Lydia says, amused. "Only you could get yourself into this type of situation."

"Ugh," Scott says, scowling at her. "If you're done laughing at this can you please tell me what I should do? I seriously can't go to that writing class now. I feel like if I go there I'm definitely going to say something stupid, and then Stiles will know that I was going to ask his boyfriend out on a date and he'll like, punch me or something."

"Relax, Scott, your poker face is better than you think."

"You beat me at cards every time!" Scott says, indignant.

"Yeah, but that's because I've known you since third grade and your face is an open book to me," Lydia says dismissively, and well. She's got a point.

"Okay, fine," he agrees, and Lydia smiles at him in approval.

"Alright, tell me exactly what happened today," she says, and Scott sighs, and launches into a summary.

At the end of it, Lydia looks like she's struggling not to laugh, and Scott narrows his eyes at her. He might find this funny in like, ten years or something, but right now it's a serious situation for him and laughter is not the right response.

"Well?" Scott says. "What do I say to them when I next see them?"

Lydia hums and puts her thinking face on, and Scott settles in to listen.

“I think,” Lydia says, finally, “that you need to take some time and sort out your feelings towards Stiles, and Derek, and Stiles _and_ Derek.”

“Alright,” says Scott. “How?”

Lydia rolls her eyes. “Just think about what you want out of your relationship with both of them, and how them being in a relationship changes or doesn’t change that, whatever.”

“Huh, okay.”

“Do you have classes with either of them tomorrow?”

“No, lab only meets once a week, and – wait, shit, I have my writing seminar tomorrow and Stiles is in it!”

“Alright, well, if you’re really worried you’ll say something stupid then skip that class tomorrow,” Lydia says. “I trust you, you can figure this out, Scott.”

“Thanks,” Scott tells her, heartfelt. “You’re a lifesaver.”

Lydia smirks and says, “I already knew that, but good to hear that.”

Scott wrinkles his nose at her, and the conversation soon devolves into idle gossip about their hometown.

The next day, luck smiles on Scott because his writing professor cancels class, since her children are very sick. That also means Scott’s free for the day, since that was his only class, and so he takes the entire day to take Lydia’s advice and think about what he wants.

He has lunch with Kira, the bubbly girl who lives a floor down from him, and listens to her chatter on about the explosions she got to create in her chemistry lab, while he ruminates on the Derek and Stiles dilemma in the back of his head.

He thinks about it while he does his organic chem homework and works on his Spanish essay; but he ignores his lab problem set and decides to call his mom instead. He talks to her for a while, and when she tells him she loves him no matter what and that she knows he'll make the right decision, Scott smiles and tells her he loves her too. He never told her what he was debating over, but it's his mom. She always knows when something’s bothering him.

By the end of the day, then, he's realized that he wants to be friends with both Derek and Stiles, but he also wants  _more_  with both of them. As a couple. The thought of either of them with him kind of blows his mind, but the thought of both of them together? Goodbye, brain, it was nice knowing you.

The only thing he has to decide is how to bring that up to both of them, and what to do if they reject him – which, now that he's had some time to think about his interactions with them from a distance and objectively-ish, he can say with some certainty that that doesn't seem like a very likely scenario – and what to do if they accept his offer (other than dance in joy, of course).

He calls up Lydia, then, because she's a genius and she’s Scott’s best friend and so is invested in his happiness.

"Oh good, you finally figured it out," is the first thing Lydia says to him when he tells her. "Took you a while but you finally got there."

"What," Scott says.

"Do you know how many times you mention Stiles or Derek in on a daily business?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not one for probability, but it has to be at least 70%, and from what you've told me, it sounds like both of them could very well be interested in you."

" _Lydiaaaa_ ," Scott says, face hot. He can't believe this. "You couldn't have told me this earlier? It would have saved me so much angst!"

"I always say that you need to work on your self-awareness more, Scott," Lydia says, but she's laughing on the inside, Scott can tell.

After she’s done laughing at him, Lydia gives him a pep talk, and before going to bed, Scott knocks on wood and wishes on his eyelash, shoots off a text to both Derek and Stiles asking them to meet him tomorrow, and goes to sleep.

The next morning, Scott wakes up ridiculously early, jittery with energy. He speeds through his morning routine and holds off checking his phone for replies for as long as he can.

Eventually he has to give in, though, and the replies are simple: an _ok_ from Derek, and a _see you then_ from Stiles, but they give him an immense amount of relief. At least neither of them refused him outright after the abrupt way he'd left them earlier. Lydia had told him they wouldn't but it was nice to have the actual confirmation.

The time to talk comes both way too quickly and not fast enough. Scott pays extra attention in class to make the time go faster and also to keep himself from thumbing over to look at the messages and smiling like an idiot. He knows that there's no guarantee that this will all work out well, but he can't help it. He's an optimist and he has a good feeling about this.

He gets to the little garden nestled next to the physics building early. It’s empty, as it usually tends to be, since not a lot of people know about it. He plonks himself down on one of the iron benches and waits, knees jumping up and down.

Derek and Stiles come in together, not holding hands, but standing close enough that it's obvious that they're a united front. Scott tries a smile when he sees them and instinctively raises his hand in a dorky little wave, and then blushes. Stiles looks at him for a second and then just laughs, his mouth open and eyes in little half-moons, and Scott's worries about being awkward just fade away.

He sees Derek hiding a smile behind one hand as he pulls Stiles to sit down, and ugh, he is so gone on both of these dudes, he can't even believe it.

"So," Scott says when they're all seated. "Um, I just. I wanted to apologize for the way I ran out on you guys earlier."

Derek nods and smiles at him, and Stiles just watches him with sharp eyes, the laughter from earlier gone. Scott takes a breath and continues.

"And I guess I want to say that I really like both of you guys, you know? Like, you're my best friends here. But I just – ugh, I'm not sure how to say this properly—"

"Are you breaking up with us because we're gay?" Stiles butts in suddenly, eyes hard and voice angry. Derek looks as shocked as Scott feels at his outburst, and Scott just gapes for a second, trying to process what Stiles just said.

"I – _breaking up_?" Scott says, then decides to ignore that for now and shakes his head to refocus. "I mean, I'm bisexual, so I don't have a problem with you guys dating!"

Stiles frowns. "What, so is it just that you don't want to be friends with us anymore?"

"What, no, Stiles, where are you getting this?" Scott says, lost. "I do want to be friends with you – well, not friends hopefully but – argh," he scrubs a hand over his face. "Look, I'm trying to say that I want to be more than friends with both of you," he spits out, finally. He can feel his ears burning up and he closes his eyes; this is definitely not the calm, cool, and collected way Lydia had told him to bring up the idea of polyamory.

There's a pause, and when Scott finally opens his eyes, he sees that it's Stiles' turn to gape, and despite the fact that he can probably see Stiles’ molars, Scott still finds him as attractive as ever.

Meanwhile, Derek has his face in his hands and his shoulders are shaking. Scott would be afraid that he's crying, but he can hear the little hitched sounds Derek makes when he's trying to suppress his laughter, and he doesn't know quite what to make of this but at least laughing seems a more positive reaction than crying.

"Oh my God," Derek says when he finally collects himself and looks up, a grin still lingering at the edges of his mouth. Stiles is still staring at Scott, and Derek just puts a hand under his open jaw and shuts it for him. "Shit, I'm sorry for laughing, Scott but – all of yesterday Stiles worked himself into a fit about how you were probably a homophobic asshole who couldn't deal with his friends being gay and in a relationship with each other – which, by the way, I told him was definitely _not_ true – and here you are proposing a polyamorous relationship."

Stiles is slowly turning bright red, Scott notices distantly. He would be too, actually, except he doesn't blush easily, so his face just feels like it could fry an egg, and he really can't think of anything to say. Derek still looks highly amused, and god, why doesn't someone say something. Anything. Just something to break the silence.

Stiles is the one who finally cracks. "Are you serious?" he says, voice unsteady. "Do you really want to—"

" _Yes_ ," Scott says, and it feels like a weight lifting off his shoulders. "I've had a crush on both of you since school started and I tried to move on from you, at least," he looks at Stiles, "because you kept mentioning The Boyfriend, but you kept on touching me and laughing and you're so fucking funny, I just couldn't.

"And you!" he says, looking at Derek, who's grinning at him with those adorable bunny teeth. He doesn't know where this sudden courage to be honest is coming from (probably Lydia sending him telepathic vibes to be straightforward) but he'll take it and run with it. "You're too cute for your own good, with your eyes and your stupid teeth and your stories about weird nature. I was actually going to ask you out that day but you were wearing that green shirt and then you and Stiles were together and I just panicked that I was reading too much into the flirting and all and that I was going to overstep and say something stupid."

Derek's no longer smiling, his eyebrows are scrunched together and he’s touching his teeth curiously, and Stiles says, “ _I know right_ , that green shirt should probably be illegal it looks so good on him."

Derek punches him in the arm then, and Stiles yelps, smacking Derek back. Scott laughs, feeling affection well up in him, and both Derek and Stiles look at him with grins on their faces.

"So that's a yes from you guys, then?" Scott asks, just to be completely sure.

"Yeah," Derek says, and his amused voice is seriously the best, all smooth and happy. "You absolutely weren't reading too much into the flirting, do you know what you look like with _your_ puppy eyes?"

Scott feels his face grow hot again, but before he can reply, Stiles leans over the table and kisses him square on the mouth, hands hot on his cheeks and well. That's definitely an enthusiastic yes from him.

When Stiles finally lets him go, Scott feels wrecked (from a simple kiss!) and deliriously happy, and Stiles looks much the same. Derek just looks incredibly turned on, pupils blown wide and lips red like he'd been biting them. Scott grins at him and leans in to kiss him too, and safe to say, transferring to this college was possibly the best decision of his life.


End file.
